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Chapter 1: Minor Miner
This is the first chapter of the MTH installation. Description Zach is on a mining mission on Aegis VII and has been for some time. Inconveniences keep happening one after another, but he does his best to shake them off. This is the worst of it right? Story Ting, ting, ting. ''The sound of pickaxes continually striking rock echoed throughout the caves that were currently being mined on Aegis VII. At least that's what Zach liked to imagine anyways; the actual cause of the noise was unknown to him. He knew it wasn't from a pickax however, as most tools used in mining these days were plasma based rather than metal. He hummed quietly to himself not wanting to disturb any nearby co-workers as he examined the wall in front of him, trying to identify any mineral that he needed to extract. After a couple minutes of scanning the wall to no avail, he sighed and started to walk away. "You guys having any luck over there? Ain't shit in this cave I'm telling ya. This world may have some nice resources, but most of it is probably too far down for us to get, I don't know why we don't just wait for the planet crack." Zach mentioned to his fellow miners strewn about the cave. "Not seeing anything m'self personally Zach, but I think that may just be because we're pretty much stripped this area clean already. M'self and D67 already came through here yesterday, not sure what we're doing back here quite frankly. We may as well pack up our gear and head back up for now, I'm sure yer tired after all, being a youngin and whatnot. Y'know I'm still baffled as to why they let you come along, yer under the legal age." one of his co-workers, Markil, said back. Markil was a tall, burly 40-something year old who had been in the mining business for quite some time. His face was slightly chubby despite his overall muscular figure and was mostly covered in dark scruffy facial hair. Zach guessed he was about 6'5" as he was roughly a head taller than himself and he probably weighed around 200lbs, not much more than himself. Zach stretched and hustled over to his gear, eager to head back up to his quarters. As he gathered up his stuff, he thought he noticed someone sitting beside it. He stared blankly at this person that he didn't recognize before blinking a few times and rubbing his eyes. Sure enough after the process they were gone, but this didn't exactly surprise him. Deep space could take a toll on your sanity and they had been out here for what seemed like years, though he wasn't exactly sure how long they had been on Aegis VII at this point, he stopped keeping track of time. Not to mention Zach felt particularly tired this day, he hadn't slept well the night before as he couldn't get comfortable. He chalked it up to sleep deprivation and deep space sickness. He grabbed his 211-V Plasma Cutter and his Arctic Sub-Zero Rifle and started to head back when he thought he heard someone calling his name so he stopped and turned around. "Yes I'm talking to you kid. Where the hell did you get that ASR? Who'd you steal it from or kill? There's no way in hell some pipsqueak like you is actually certified to use that thing, I can tell that just from looking at you. You aren't even wearing a certified RIG how the hell do you think you'd even operate that?" someone yelled at him, staring sternly at him with his hand hovering over what appearing to be a holstered pistol. Zach wasn't sure who this person was, they weren't apart of his team and must be a supervisor or a cover for someone else. Zach stared at him, unsure as to what to do. He didn't want to risk sounding like a smartass and provoking him and getting shot. Zach tried to say something, but ended up just stumbling over his words and making incoherent noises. Before Zach could actually get functioning words out of his mouth or this mystery person could get mad at him for appearing to just mumble at him, Markil walked up and put a heavy hand on the man's shoulder. "Now, now, don't go actin' hostile towards one of our own unless yer tryin' to find out what it's like to be exiled in deep space Jarkon. Whether you believe it or not, Reior here is certified to use that and has custom gear to use it, isn't that right Zach?" "Uh, uhm...well yeah, that's true. My dad helped me develop personal equipment to deal with the ASR. It's not a full RIG so I don't get full body protection, but they're a sort of glove that turns into a sleeve that connects the basic RIG we wear and gives me protection on my hands and arms so I can use it without a bulky RIG." Markil then smiled the most intimidating smile he'd ever seen and spoke to this man, Jarkon, again. "See what'd I tell ya? Now yer better off min'ing, see what I did there, yer own business. I knew yer not part of this team and that the bosses sent you with us today on special request, but that don't mean you can go stirrin' up trouble. Don't you think they would know if Reior wasn't supposed to have that? They check our gear before we come down here." Jarkon grunted and mumbled something under his breath before turning and walking away, going back to examining his area disinterestedly. Markil smiled a warming smile at Zach before waving him on so that he knew he could continue on his way. Zach nodded and mouthed a thank you before turning and continuing his way out of the cave. It seemed like an eternity that he walked though, now paranoid that someone else would say something about his ASR. ''Who did I kill or steal it from? What kind of question is that? Does that mean there are people here who would do such a thing for this? he thought to himself. He shook his head defiantly, trying to shake off such thoughts. Surely they wouldn't let anyone like that out here. After all, if someone wanted an ASR all they'd have to do is get training for it and the company could supply it for the mission. Zach continued trying to reassure himself that he was safe when suddenly a loud noise broke the silence. It was a piercing screen, the sound only metal on metal could make. Zach instinctively dropped to the ground and covered his ears. Not because he was scared of course, but because he had an idea of what was about to coming. Sure enough, the piercing metal sound was suddenly replaced but a god awful crunch and a cacophony of other metallic sounds followed by what was surely a small explosion. Seconds later shrapnel filled the air around him and came down like burning rain. After a few seconds it seemed to stop and Zach looked around to make sure nothing else was happening. When he was sure the coast was clear he began looking and patting himself all over, trying to check for any serious injuries. He breathed a sigh of relief as he didn't appear to have taken any real damage from the event, just a few scratches, bruises, and singes. Someone suddenly appeared running over the horizon, donning a full RIG. He appeared to be looking around for any signs of life when he spotted Zach and ran towards him. "I'm sorry about that! I'm not entirely sure what happened, one second the drill was running smoothly without issues under normal conditions and the next thing I knew something went haywire and something exploded! I'm still not sure what that was though, but are you okay?" the voice was muffled by the RIG or maybe it was from the explosion, but either way Zach couldn't tell if they were male or female. "Yeah, I'm okay. A few dings here and there, but nothing worth even going to medbay about." The person seemed to breathe a sigh of relief themselves, apologized again, and then went about their way presumably to look for anyone else caught in the event. Zach finally arrived at his quarters and put all his equipment up in his locker. He laid out on his bed and let out a yawn before looking over at the clock. It was currently 1937 on Aegis VII, much earlier than it felt. Zach stared at the ceiling and began to wonder how he ended up here, Markil was correct in saying that he was under the legal age. Legal age for deep space mining operations, specifically those dealing with planet cracks, is 24 years old and yet Zach was only 21. He realized that he was no novice, he had been helping his dad on various mining projects since he was about 11. He was one of the youngest people ever to receive ASR certification as well at the age of 19. Yet this again was another oddity, you aren't supposed to be able to take the test until 22 unless in the military. As Zach continued staring at the black and white patterned ceiling he realized that these questions were foolish, he was here because he was qualified and he was qualified because someone saw his potential, skill, and experience. Zach stretched again and let out another yawn before commanding the room to turn off his lights. He laid on his side and began to slowly do basic arithmetic in his head to calm himself before finally slowing his breathing and heart rate. ''This is the worst that's happened so far and probably as bad as it'll get. ''he thought as he fell into a deep slumber.